Green Dot Card Scam

A
70-year-old Burke-area woman answered her phone this week and the caller
told the woman she’d won 3.5 million dollars and a brand new Mercedes.
But there was a catch. The woman was instructed to purchase Green Dot
payment cards and provide the caller with the account numbers.

The
woman purchased $13,000 of the Green Dot cards and provided the numbers
to him; along with her social security number, date of birth and other
private information as she was instructed.

By
the time a caring relative discovered what had happened, it was too late
and the victim lost much of her money. The Green Dot cards are pre-paid,
loadable cards similar to other brands of credit and debit cards.
Detectives caution that these scams are not isolated to any particular
financial institution.

This
is another in a series of scams Financial Crimes Unit detectives are
seeing in Fairfax County and across the region. Unfortunately, as with
many of these scams, once money is wired or sent away, there is very
little that can be done to recover the funds. Detectives are committed to
providing education and information on some of these schemes and ruses to
the public. To learn more, or to report an incident, visit the Financial
Crime Online Reporting site of the FCPD website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/financialcrimes.
Since the online site went live in October 2011, over 1,200 crimes have
been reported.

To
request a group presentation on the topic of schemes or financial crimes
contact Lucy Caldwell, Public Information Office at 703-246-3271.

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To request this information in an alternate format, call the Public Affairs Bureau at 703.246.2253. TTY 703-877-3715